The number of Jupiter’s moons jumped to 92, the most in the solar system

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) — Astronomers have discovered 12 new satellites around Jupiter, bringing the total to a record 92.

This is more than any other planet in our solar system. Saturn, the former leader, comes in second with 83 confirmed moons.

Jupiter’s moons were recently added to the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center list, said Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution, who was part of the team.

They were discovered using telescopes in Hawaii and Chile in 2021 and 2022, and their orbits have been confirmed by subsequent observations.

These newest satellites are 0.6 to 2 miles (1 to 3 kilometers) in size, Sheppard said.

“I hope that in the near future we will be able to take close-up photographs of one of these outer moons to better determine their origin,” he said in an email Friday.

In April, the European Space Agency sends a spacecraft to Jupiter to study the planet and some of its largest icy moons. And next year, NASA will launch the Europa Clipper to explore Jupiter’s moon of the same name, which may have an ocean beneath its frozen crust.

Sheppard, who a few years ago discovered many satellites around Saturn and participated in 70 discoveries of satellites around Jupiter, expects to continue to add to the lunar account of both gas giants.

Jupiter and Saturn are loaded with small moons that are thought to be fragments of once-large moons that have collided with each other, comets or asteroids, Sheppard said. The same goes for Uranus and Neptune, but they are so far away that it is even harder to spot the Moon.

For reference, Uranus has 27 confirmed moons, Neptune has 14, Mars has two, and Earth has one. Venus and Mercury come out empty.

The recently discovered moons of Jupiter have not yet been named. Sheppard said only half of them are large enough – at least 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) or so – to give a name.

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